Pope Leo’s Hail Mary on AI

By Paul Monk

If you are not a Christian – think of, say, Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian (1927) – or, in fact, a devout Catholic, it’s not immediately apparent why you would take the time to read an encyclical by the Roman Catholic Pope on artificial intelligence (AI) and the human future.

Why not give priority to, say, the Special Edition of Scientific American (Winter/Spring 2025) on ‘AI: How the Machine Learning Revolution is Transforming Science and Everyday Life’ There are, of course, many deeply informed books on the subject.

Yet, Pope Leo XIV has written an encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, and people are reading it. If for no other reason than to be able to converse with others, whatever their beliefs, about what the encyclical says, it makes some sense to read it.

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